Akhlāq-i zīstī i.e., Bioethics Journal

Abstract

Background and Aim: The intensification of contemporary environmental crises has revealed the necessity of rethinking moral foundations. In the West, theories such as Peter Singer's utilitarianism, by emphasizing the expansion of the ethical sphere to include animals and nature, have offered solutions. In the Islamic world, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli has outlined a framework for environmental ethics based on specific theological and philosophical foundations. Despite numerous studies in each of these two domains, there is still no comprehensive comparative research that simultaneously examines both Western and Islamic foundations of environmental ethics. The aim of this study is to compare and analyze the views of Peter Singer and Ayatollah Javadi Amoli to explain their points of convergence and divergence, and to provide a clear perspective for strengthening moral foundations in the field of the environment.

Methods: The present research is theoretical in nature and descriptive-analytical in terms of its method of inquiry. Furthermore, the research approach is library-based (documentary).

Ethical Considerations: Ethical aspects in this library-based study, such as principles of scholarly integrity and proper citation, have been observed.

Results: Findings indicate that Singer defines reason as a tool for calculating consequences and regulates ethical responsibility solely based on reducing the suffering of beings and maximizing benefits. In this framework, environmental rationality is equivalent to optimizing resource distribution and compensating for ecological damages. However, Allameh Javadi Amoli, by integrating demonstrative reason, revelation, and mystical intuition, establishes the concept of sacred intellect and addresses three cognitive, ethical, and practical domains. The findings suggest that overcoming contemporary environmental crises requires a transition from the paradigm of instrumental rationality toward an integrated model in which reason, illuminated by divine wisdom, and is simultaneously knowledge-generating, responsibility-creating, and justice-oriented.

Conclusion: Through a comparative examination of the position of reason in the environmental ethics systems of Peter Singer and Allameh Javadi Amoli, this study has uncovered fundamental ruptures in the rational paradigms of the modern West and Islamic wisdom. The reduction of reason to a tool for calculating profit and loss – as manifested in Singer's utilitarianism – leads to several epistemic lacunae in confronting the environment. Among the most significant of these lacunae are the reduction of the ecosystem to a quantifiable commodity and reliance solely on market mechanisms without a transformation in value foundations. However, the comprehensive Islamic model, by integrating demonstrative reason and divine revelation, offers a unified system that enables institution-building and the formulation of environmental policies in a fundamentally different manner.